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What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Information Frontier ReviewThis book wasn't what I expected. As [the] editorial review explains, but the book description only hints at, this is a collection of previously published work. Since I read the latter, but not the former, I was expecting a retrospective analysis of the .com bubble. Because of the rapid rate of obsolescence of most things written about the Internet, I don't think I would have bought the book had I known that parts of it were written as long as a decade ago, but I'm glad I did anyway.Looking back with the benefit of hindsight at things written about the Internet over the course of the last decade proves to be an illuminating exercise. It definitely seems to be a case of the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Some of the things that have changed a lot since the time the original articles were published are:
*Everyone knows what the Internet is (in his introduction, Gleick explains that in the early `90s, editors made him explain this when he used the term in articles). One of the really interesting things I learned reading the book is that the original development of the Web only dates back to 1989.
*In a 1993 article, he describes people being annoyed by mobile phones ringing in airports. Given the far less appropriate places they ring today, that seems positively quaint.
*In 1993, some people remembered who Dan Quayle was and cared enough to create a newsgroup devoted to making fun of him.
Some current issues that the book demonstrates have a much longer history are:
*Concerns about bandwidth and information privacy (or more accurately, lack thereof).
*Password overload (described in amusing detail in a 1995 column).
*The incomprehensibility of software and Web site user agreements - even to those who bother to read them.
As an added bonus, since it was written as technologies were emerging, the book provides the full name of things that are now only known by their acronyms. For instance, I've never known what ISDN stands for, but now I know that it's `Integrated Services Digital Network.'
With the benefit of hindsight, we can see that some of Gleick's predictions were very prescient (e.g. the Y2K anti-climax), while others were less accurate or at least premature (e.g. cash becoming obsolete). All in all, the book provides a very enjoyable look through the rearview mirror.What Just Happened: A Chronicle from the Information Frontier Overview
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